Kerry’s advanced taste solutions help combat global ingredient supply crisis

As volatile commodity prices and supply chain disruptions reshape the global food industry, Kerry Group’s scientifically engineered taste solutions offer manufacturers unprecedented resilience. Leigh Anne Vaughan, VP of Marketing and Strategy for Kerry’s Taste division, outlines how the company’s research-driven approach enables significant ingredient reductions whilst maintaining authentic flavour profiles and supporting sustainability targets across multiple food categories.

Navigating commodity price volatility and managing costs

The food and beverage industry is facing significant challenges related to ingredient availability and rising costs, driven by extreme weather, environmental pressures, and crop diseases, particularly affecting key produce like citrus and cocoa. Kerry offers a comprehensive range of ‘taste’ solutions designed to help mitigate these supply and cost pressures, all while maintaining the taste experiences that consumers know and love.

Cocoa crisis

The cocoa industry faced a severe crop shortfall for the 2023/2024 season, with a 15% deficit. Despite a more optimistic forecast from the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) for the 2024/2025 season, cocoa prices remain highly volatile, with current prices nearly triple those in 2023 [1]. This volatility, coupled with shortages in specific cocoa powder types, puts increasing pressure on manufacturers to either absorb the rising costs or pass them on to consumers, risking potential sales declines. Maintaining the rich, indulgent cocoa taste consumers expect while aligning with sustainability goals has become increasingly difficult.

Kerry’s cocoa boosters [2] provide a targeted solution to these challenges. Building on over a century of cocoa extraction expertise, these boosters enable manufacturers to reduce cocoa content by up to 50% without compromising the iconic cocoa taste profile. This can lead to significant cost savings and lower carbon emissions by up to 48% compared to traditional cocoa powder. Kerry uses advanced extraction and fermentation technologies to replicate cocoa’s complex sensory profile,
from roasted and bitter notes to nutty, vanillic, and dairy notes, ensuring brands can maintain a premium sensory experience while adapting to market shifts and changing environmental conditions.

While certain cocoa alternatives like roasted cereal flours can deliver some aspects of the cocoa experience, they often lack the full depth of flavour and complexity that consumers expect. By integrating solutions like Kerry’s cocoa boosters, brands can mitigate supply chain challenges, and deliver exceptional, sustainable chocolate taste experiences.

Citrus is experiencing significant supply volatility due to various factors including climate change

Citrus supply challenges

Citrus, the world’s most popular flavour, featured in approximately one-third of all beverage launches over the past five years [3] is also experiencing significant supply volatility. This is largely due to poor harvests, the pervasive citrus greening disease, and unpredictable climate-change events. For example, orange juice prices have increased by almost 300% since 2019, posing significant challenges to food and beverage manufacturers, from both a cost and supply point of view.

In response to reduced juice availability, many beverage companies are reformulating juice-based drinks, a process that can impact both taste and mouthfeel. Kerry’s citrus taste solutions [4] offer a powerful answer: they enable manufacturers to reduce juice content by up to 50% without compromising on taste, delivering up to 30% cost savings, reducing supply chain challenges, and amplifying juiciness and mouthfeel – all with 100% natural ingredients.

Beyond juice reformulation, manufacturers are also navigating a highly volatile market for citrus oils, a key ingredient in many flavour formulations. The combined impact of citrus greening disease and unpredictable climate events has significantly affected the availability, quality, and cost of these essential oils. Prices for orange and lime oils have surged by over 200%, driving up the cost of citrus-based flavours. Kerry addresses this challenge with their innovative Sustainable Citrus Extenders. These natural solutions replicate authentic citrus taste while reducing citrus oil content by up to 75%, without compromising flavour performance in application. This enables their customers to achieve greater supply stability and cost efficiency, with potential savings of up to 25% on the finished flavour. Kerry’s comprehensive citrus portfolio addresses the full spectrum of their customers’ citrus challenges such as stability, supply and value – all without compromising taste. For instance, Kerry’s shelf-stable citrus taste solutions maintain freshness for up to 52 weeks [5], a significant improvement over the typical six-week shelf life of traditional citrus flavours. Leveraging advanced processing methods and their strong grower partnerships, Kerry’s extensive Citrus portfolio enables customers to overcome formulation challenges while preserving the vibrant, authentic citrus taste consumers expect.

Adapting to regulatory and public health changes

The regulatory landscape is undergoing a fundamental shift as public health initiatives align with growing consumer demands for healthier, more transparent food products. Regulations around high salt, sugar and fat in food and drinks are reshaping industry norms and brands are adapting. At the same time, consumers are looking for healthier, more transparent food and beverages that don’t compromise on taste, at an affordable price point. This dual pressure is further highlighted in Kerry’s 2024 All-In-One Meals & Dinners Research, which reveals that 22% of consumers prioritize nutritional information when purchasing ready meals, with 35% focusing on sodium levels and 26% on total sugars.

Kerry’s Tastesense™ [6] portfolio directly addresses these evolving regulatory pressures and consumer demands. Their science-backed solutions enable customers to create healthier, more nutritionally sustainable products that genuinely taste great.

Roasted cocoa beans, powder and pods isolated on white background

Cocoa prices remain highly volatile due to a supply shortfall

Kerry’s Tastesense solutions include:

• Tastesense Sweetness: [7] Enables sugar reduction from 30-100%, depending on the product and desired outcome.
It addresses traditional sugar reduction, effectively masks undesirable off-notes from artificial sweeteners and stevia – and rebuilds authentic mouthfeel while enhancing sweetness perception in reduced-sugar and sugar-free products.
• Tastesense Salt: [8] Enables manufacturers to reduce sodium by up to 60%, while preserving the familiar salty taste and lingering flavour that consumers expect. To assist manufacturers, Kerry’s proprietary sodium simulator tool [9] helps identify optimal Tastesense Salt formulations, evaluating taste profiles (overall, upfront, middle, and lingering) for specific applications.
• Tastesense Masking: [10] Beyond reductions, enhanced nutrition is a key area for Kerry’s customers. However, these beneficial ingredients often bring undesirable off-notes and taste challenges. Kerry’s Tastesense Masking technology neutralizes any undesirable off-notes whether from proteins, antioxidants, omega-3s, or other functional ingredients, ensuring that healthier formulations remain both palatable
and enjoyable.

Supporting sustainability targets

Sustainability remains a top priority for the food and beverage industry, particularly in areas like dairy and traditional smoking methods, which are known for their carbon-intensive production processes. Kerry supports customers in achieving their sustainability targets with cost-efficient, great tasting solutions.

For example, dairy has been a staple in diets for centuries, yet its production has been cited as a significant contributor to carbon emissions in food manufacturing. Kerry has developed a range
of sustainable dairy taste solutions [11] that can be incorporated into customers’ products. These solutions enable them to reduce their carbon footprint, improve efficiencies, and make cost-effective choices, all while maintaining the beloved taste of dairy.

Additionally, conventional smoking is a resource-intensive process due to smoke’s damaging impact on infrastructure as well as high energy and water requirements. Kerry’s smoke [12] condensates offer a sustainable alternative, reducing carbon emissions by up to 42% while delivering the smoky, charred taste consumers know and love. Their smoke technology reduces resource-intensive smoking processes, delivering consistent smoky profiles in meat, while conserving both water and energy.

Resilience through innovation

As the food and beverage industry navigates unprecedented volatility in ingredient supply, pricing, and regulatory demands, Kerry stands as a trusted partner in delivering innovative, resilient, cost-effective, and sustainable solutions. From addressing the cocoa and citrus supply crises to enabling healthier product reformulations and reducing environmental impact, their science-backed taste solutions empower manufacturers to adapt and reformulate at pace. By combining Kerry’s broader food science and processing capabilities with their deep expertise in taste, Kerry helps brands solve challenges that extend far beyond flavour alone. Kerry develops advanced, more resilient taste solutions that not only meet but anticipate the demands of today’s food and beverage landscape delivering on nutrition, sustainability and cost-efficiency without compromising on taste.

About Kerry Group

Ireland-based Kerry Group, a global leader in taste and nutrition, is at the forefront of addressing some of the most pressing challenges facing the food and beverage industry. Through research, innovation, and impactful partnerships, Kerry delivers science-backed solutions that enhance food safety, sustainability, and nutrition. Currently, Kerry is helping 1.4 billion people consume healthier, more nutritious food, with a goal of reaching two billion people by 2030.

Visit: www.kerry.com

About the author

Leigh-Anne Vaughan is a global B2B marketing executive with 20+ years of experience in the food and beverage industry. As VP of Marketing and Strategy for Kerry’s Taste division, she leads global growth through innovative, customer-focused solutions. She also regularly contributes to and participates in industry bodies that shape global standards and drive industry direction. Known for her strategic insight and purpose-driven leadership, Vaughan builds high-impact marketing capabilities across complex global portfolios.

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